The most commonly known method for sewing machine needle manufacture has involved the steps of cutting lengthwise grooves in the needle blade usually by a milling operation. Such known milling processes have been time consuming, the resulting sharp groove edges are detrimental to thread handling and have required elaborate finishing operations.
Cold forming techniques are also known in sewing machine needle manufacture and these pressing methods have been particularly effective to form the long groove section of needle blades. In the known processes in which the blade of the needle is pressed, the formation of the eye portion has involved milling or other cutting operations, required a large number of finishing operations, and imposed serious limitations as to the flange dimensions which could be obtained adjacent to the eye, thus weakening the strength of the resulting needles.